New plants today

[mpmistr]

Everybody said no substrate best. I HATE it. It looks terrible. Everything i hear about putting sand in makes it sound like a huge pain in the butt. Dusty no matter what you do. Is there a recommendation for less dusty sand?

thanks,
carole

There are a lot of options. I've used pool filter sand but it didn't look very natural. I really like Caribsea sand substrates. Moonlight sand is white and looks pretty good, it's a very fine substrate. I also use Caribsea Sunset Gold, it's a little big bigger as far as grain size but the color is a more tan color and a little more natural looking. Avoid Caribsea Tahitian Moon, it's black, but sharp.

You could get a bag of one of these sands and use a measuring cup to sprinkle it on the bottom of your tank and get some good cover. It will cloud the water up for a few hours but the filter will take care of that in a few hours.

Oh and it's a bit pricey at PetSmart (like 25 bucks), I would buy it online if you can. I found a LFS that sold it for $16 for 20lbs, that should be enough.

[reptileszz]

There are a lot of options. I've used pool filter sand but it didn't look very natural. I really like Caribsea sand substrates. Moonlight sand is white and looks pretty good, it's a very fine substrate. I also use Caribsea Sunset Gold, it's a little big bigger as far as grain size but the color is a more tan color and a little more natural looking. Avoid Caribsea Tahitian Moon, it's black, but sharp.

You could get a bag of one of these sands and use a measuring cup to sprinkle it on the bottom of your tank and get some good cover. It will cloud the water up for a few hours but the filter will take care of that in a few hours.

Oh and it's a bit pricey at PetSmart (like 25 bucks), I would buy it online if you can. I found a LFS that sold it for $16 for 20lbs, that should be enough.

Thank you. Another question. What about vacuuming? Does the sand come up? I like to siphon off the debris every other day and am concerned about sucking up sand. Something tells me it is too heavy to get sucked up but wanted to check.

thanks!

[Felis]

Hi,

you can stir the sand before siphoning out the water. If the tube gets too close to the sand, it will come up, but with a little bit of routine it´s quite easy to remove dirt without ending up with a sand-free bottom

[deranged chipmunk]

i've been using play sand (about $4/50 @home depot) in planted tanks for a very long time. it works wonderfully when capping a dirt substrate, but i know many people who use it as a primary substrate. bare bottom tanks are great for breeding. i had 10 bare bottom tanks for shrimp breeding, but for a show tank, very unattractive.

[rodsboys]

Playsand all the way. Cheap and fairly clean. All sand is usually cloudy for a day or 2, but after that it is good to go. Even if you stir it up. You can siphon it just like a bare bottom because all the junk stays on top of it.

[mpmistr]

I think I may use playsand in my new tank since it is of such large volume. I heard you can place the sand in a pillow case and run a hose through it to clean it. I have not tried this method personally though.

I always found Caribsea's products to be very clean and high quality, but really expensive compared to playsand or silica sand which is very inexpensive.

[reptileszz]

Hi guys, I am getting seriously conflicting info. I am on a yahoo groups forum too and they are dead set against any substrate including sand. And sources online (just googling around) say the sand can be ingested. Which I'm sure it CAN but how much of a risk is this? I keep my bearded dragons on sand and it is controversial in the dragon communities. I have never had a problem with it but I feed in a dish so they are not eating on the sand. I hear that these frogs are such pigs they will suck up anything in their path that they even think is food. Sooo, here I sit, wanting sand but afraid to put it in ...


Carole